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Hiring or recruiting refers to the overall process of attracting, selecting and appointing suitable candidates for jobs in an organization (culled from Wikipedia).

The willingness of a hiring manager to take a risk on a person despite the caliber of their responses to some interview questions is commendable. People accomplish great things when they have something to prove. And when you take a chance on somebody, they’re going to want to prove you right. They’re going to want to make you look like a genius. That’s the kind of person you need in your team. Though this may not be the case all the time, we surely do have some bad eggs.

I’m currently a recruitment consultant in a super cool organization because someone took a risk and gave me a chance. Looking at it now, i’m pretty sure my employer is glad he did. During the last stage of interview for the final two candidates, i met the other candidate. She was a lot younger than me, in my head i just concluded i had lost out based on my age but yipeeee i got the job!

The truth is that employers or hiring managers aren’t generally in the business of giving people chances. Employers can however, be convinced to take a chance on you. Every time a company hires anyone, they are taking a chance. They try to mitigate the risks as much as possible by surveying resumes for the most qualified people, interviewing those people to find the best fit, and then sometimes conducting background checks to check for red flags.

Still, when employers sign that contract, they’re taking a gamble. Resumes can be exaggerated, people can be great in interviews but not always great on the job. Hiring the wrong person is messy and a heartache.

For candidates, don’t only wait for employers to give you a chance, thereby asking them to make a poor business decision as a favour to you. Your challenge is to give potential employers a good reason to take that chance on you. You have to show that you have the skills, the passion, and the willingness to work hard and be an asset to the team.

My final thought…

Everything that you do well will convince your employer that they made the right decision in taking a chance on you – and every connection and skill that you learn along the way makes getting your next, bigger and better chance easier. And you’ve earned it, remember to take a chance on someone too.

Exit interviews are focused on employees that are leaving an organization. The focus of this interview is to glean feedback from employees in order to improve certain aspects of the organization.

An exit interview is a tool that assesses:

What drives an employee to leave an organisation.

The aspects the employee valued.

What the employee thinks needs to improve in order to increase employee engagement, performance, and loyalty.

As a HR professional, does your organization conduct exit interviews? If No, you are missing out on an incredible opportunity to find out why your employees are jumping ship in the first place. When you know why a person is leaving, proactive steps can be taken to improve the situation for the remaining employees. Overtime, this will increase employee retention – translating into significant cost-savings and a more effective team.

Results of exit interviews can help improve your organisation.

Exit interviews can also be used to find out if an employee is moving to another employer which can enable organisations to amend their HR strategy to target, attract and retain top talent. Employers use the information gained from exit interviews to save money by assessing what should be improved, changed, or remain intact at both organisation-wide or departmental levels.

Many employers/HR ignore the opportunity that exit interviews offer, chiefly because exit interview is a little bit contemporary and starting them is a difficult initiative to undertake, given the potentially subjective and ‘fuzzy’ nature of the results; the time involved; and the unspoken corporate urge to avoid exposure to criticism.

Exit interviews are nevertheless a unique chance to survey and analyse the opinions of departing employees, who generally are more forthcoming, constructive and objective than staff still in their jobs. In leaving an organisation, departing employees are liberated, and as such provide a richer source of objective feedback than employed staff do when responding to normal staff attitude surveys.

My final thought…

In certain ‘unique’ situations the exit interview also provides a last chance to change an exiting employee’s mind, although this should not be the main aim of the exit interview.